We Were Here

“June, this is amazing!” Flycatcher chirped. Her feather crest raised excitedly as she spoke, and there was a bounce in her step as she walked. It felt like every direction they turned, there was something more to see - because there was. Once they had made it past the food vendors outside (the cooked meat that they were serving was strange, but it really was delicious), the inside was just as glorious.

Dinosaurs from all across the archipelago had come to see what all the excitement was about. There was some apprehension about the source of the festival - it was, after all, lead by an Atlantean and the dinosaurs that came from the world beneath were surrounded by mixed opinions of them and their rapidly-spreading plants - but Flycatcher was just delighted to be here.

She and June had traveled a bit before they came to the Boneyard but never once had they made their way to the museum that the festival was housed within, which was a shame because there were so many things here!

In the hallways studded with framed pieces and surprisingly life-like animals (they looked a lot like they had been alive at some point, and that they could blink at any point), colourful stones and crystals, and numerous bones of all shapes and sizes that were arranged in a very… strangely dinosaur-like manner, there were dozens of other, living shows. Dinosaurs had gathered to show off their skills from balancing acts and feats of strength to things like manipulating fire and… fortune telling? Some of the acts seemed rather rushed and put together in a bit of a slap-dash manner, which lead Flycatcher to believe that anyone was joining in if they felt they had a skill to show off. She happened to know someone with a very particular set of skills.

“You could use so many of these things for your sculptures, I bet it would be incredible!” she said with a smile in her voice and excitement in her eyes as she turned her snout in her mate’s direction.

June was a bit quieter in her enthusiasm, and observed their surroundings a bit more slowly, but she was just as excited to be here as Flycatcher was.

“I’m not sure that the others would really appreciate me picking this stuff apart,” she mused. A lot of it looked pretty purposefully placed already - probably by the upwalkers, admittedly, so it might not be missed - and some of the exhibits looked as though they were actually being used for games or shows of some kind.

“Oh, come on!” Flycatcher teased. “It could be fun! Everyone else is showing off anyway, you should leave your own mark.”

The energetic atmosphere of the festival was infectious, and it seemed like everyone else was content to do their own thing, and there were many interesting materials that June could use to craft something here… The vibrantly coloured cryo sighed good-naturedly.

“Can you help me find materials?” she asked as she bumped the tip of her muzzle against Flycatcher’s cheek, humour in her voice.

Flycatcher’s feather crest immediately jumped up, her eyes bright. “Of course! I’ll get you the best sculpture pieces.”

She set to work immediately, bobbing and weaving and even jumping between members of the crowd, while June watched her fondly disappear down the hall and around a bend. Now… the question was, what was she going to build? Without knowing exactly what she had to work with she was not sure exactly how tall she could make it, but…

June walked a ways, watching a few of the shows that other dinosaurs were putting on and investigating what areas there were that she could safely build in. She settled on a small alcove. It was not occupied, it was out of the way, and there were already a few things here and there that she could use to put together into a workable shape. She preferred working outside with natural materials like young trees that she could break and shape and carve, but the bone, stone, and odd human scraps here and there would work well enough. It was just an exercise of creativity - what she had before her was an outline, but she had the power to make it whatever she wanted, with a bit of critical thinking.

While June got to work putting some things together, Flycatcher was having a merry time looking for more pieces of stuff to bring back to June’s alcove. June’s preferred sculpting materials in mind, she scoured the halls in search of the perfect pieces. With as many dinosaurs as there were milling about inside the museum, though, traversing the hallways was a bit difficult - so she took to flight. Kind of.

Flycatcher was a tremendous jumper, and could easily jump clear over a styracosaurus’s frill with enough of a run-up. Which she did, once or twice. Her acrobatics caught a bit of attention, and even more so when she started jumping up on top of some of the exhibits to reach even greater heights. There were audible gasps from below when she leapt up on top of a stuffed, hairy pachyderm, only to use it as a stepping stone to leap halfway across the hallway to the marble stone armrail of the second floor.

She was having a great time with the attention. June was used to seeing her make these great leaps and bounds - and was impressed with them every time, of course - and it was fun to get such a reaction out of strangers. It did not feel exactly like a death-defying stunt to Flycatcher, but it might seem as such to others who were not quite as acrobatic as she was.

Occasionally she brought smaller pieces back to where June was building, and each time she returned, she brought a few curious onlookers with her who were curious what it was that June was actually doing with the things that her more agile companion was collecting.

June explained each time - she was sculpting. Taking pieces of something innocuous or even quite bland and bringing them together into something… more. And with each piece of history that Flycatcher brought back with her, the sculpture grew that much closer to completion. June was not quite sure what the shape was that she was making, but it was carefully crafted with the pieces held together with little more than friction, balance, natural joints, and very selective placement. Bone, cloth, stone, wood, even small shards of glass and crystals balanced carefully on projections in such a way that they caught the light and reflections of those passing by and glittered whenever the viewing position changed.

June thought it needed just one more thing; Flycatcher agreed. It would take one more show of athleticism, and the gathered crowd watched as Flycatcher gauged the height she would need to place the strange, saber-fanged cat-like metal skull at the apex of the construction. Neither of them were really sure what it was, or why it was in a room full of other human junk, but it seemed strangely fitting to be added to the sculpture.

Everyone, including June, held their breath when Flycatcher sprang upwards and hooked the back of the skull on the very tip of the faux hollow, broken tree. When she let go the skull swayed, but stayed exactly where she had intended it to go.

June sighed in relief and nuzzled her snout into Flycatcher’s feathers, who chirped and hummed as others cheered for their apparent success. Now that the construction was complete, others started to step forwards to get a closer look, asking June such things as what exactly the sculpture meant or why she had chosen the materials that she had. Some questions were easier than others - these were just the materials that she had to work with. As for what it meant… well, art was subjective, was it not? It would mean something different for everyone that looked upon it. She just thought that it was nice.